regex101: PCRE (Legacy) Substitution Workspace

1st Alternative'[^']*(?!\\)'(*SKIP)(*F) # Make sure we're not matching inside of quotes

'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

Negated Character Class[^']*

*matches any number of characters outside the set below:

'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

Negative Lookahead(?!\\)

\\the literal \ (92₁₀ / 134₈ / 5C₁₆)

'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

(*SKIP)acts like (*PRUNE), but the next unanchored match attempt starts where (*SKIP) was reached instead of at the next subject character

(*F)forces the current match attempt to fail at this position

Comment: Make sure we're not matching inside of quotes

2nd Alternative(?m-s:\s*(?:\-{2}|\#)[^\n]*$) # Single line comment

Group with flags gxm(?m-s:\s*(?:\-{2}|\#)[^\n]*$)

m modifier: multiline. Causes ^ and $ to match the start and end of each line, not only the start and end of the string

s modifier: -single line. A dot does not match line terminators

\s*any whitespace character, repeated any number of times

Non-Capturing Group(?:\-{2}|\#)

1st Alternative\-{2}

\-{2}the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆) , repeated exactly 2 times

2nd Alternative\#

\#the literal # (35₁₀ / 43₈ / 23₁₆)

Negated Character Class[^\n]*

*matches any number of characters outside the set below:

\na line-feed (newline) character (ASCII 10)

$end of line

Comment: Single line comment

3rd Alternative(?: \/\*.*?\*\/ # Multi-line comment (?(?=(?m-s:[\t ]+$)) # Get trailing whitespace if any exists and only if it's the rest of the line [\t ]+ ) )

Non-Capturing Group(?: \/\*.*?\*\/ # Multi-line comment (?(?=(?m-s:[\t ]+$)) # Get trailing whitespace if any exists and only if it's the rest of the line [\t ]+ ) )

\/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

\*the literal * (42₁₀ / 52₈ / 2A₁₆)

.*?any character, repeated any number of times

\*the literal * (42₁₀ / 52₈ / 2A₁₆)

\/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

Comment: Multi-line comment

Condition(?(?=(?m-s:[\t ]+$)) # Get trailing whitespace if any exists and only if it's the rest of the line [\t ]+ )

Uses the first branch if the lookaround matches

Positive Lookahead(?=(?m-s:[\t ]+$))

Group with flags gxm(?m-s:[\t ]+$)

m modifier: multiline. Causes ^ and $ to match the start and end of each line, not only the start and end of the string

s modifier: -single line. A dot does not match line terminators

Character Class[\t ]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

\ta tab character (ASCII 9)

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

$end of line

If the condition is true, match this branch: # Get trailing whitespace if any exists and only if it's the rest of the line [\t ]+

Comment: Get trailing whitespace if any exists and only if it's the rest of the line

Character Class[\t ]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

\ta tab character (ASCII 9)

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

Global pattern flags

g modifier: global. Finds all matches instead of stopping after the first

x modifier: extended. Ignores unescaped whitespace and comments outside character classes

s modifier: single line. Allows a dot to match line terminators

Search reference

Regular Expression

'[^']*(?!\\)'(*SKIP)(*F)       # Make sure we're not matching inside of quotes
|(?m-s:\s*(?:\-{2}|\#)[^\n]*$) # Single line comment
|(?:
  \/\*.*?\*\/                  # Multi-line comment
  (?(?=(?m-s:[\t ]+$))         # Get trailing whitespace if any exists and only if it's the rest of the line
    [\t ]+
  )
)

Unit Tests

There are no unit tests, click to add some.